The South western news., 1887-08-17
Train Wreck in Illinois,


and Warsaw railroad, near Chats
worth, Ill The train consisted of
fifteen cars filed with excursionists
to Niagara Falls. AS the train
neared Dry Creek the engineer dis
covered that the trestle was on fire,
but the train, going alta rapid rate,
he was unable to check il in time
to prevent the accident. The en-
CINE cleared the burning bridge
but the coaches piled one on top
of another and car crashed into
car, and in one minutes time over
one hundred souls were sent into
eternity and over four hundred
wounded.
Only the sleeping coaches escap-
ed and as the half dressed passen-
gers rushed out ofthem they found
such a scene of death as is sell
dom witnessed. Night added to
the horror of the scene and the
cries and groans of the dying and
wounded that went up in the air
made the night hideous. Another
danger was to be met. The bridge
was still on fire and the wrecked
cars, with the dead aud wounded
ptssepgers pinned beneath them,
were In danger of being burned.
No water was convenient and
those who had escaped alive had
to fight fire with dry dirt. for
four hours they fought the flames
: before they were conquered.
No sooner had the wreck occurred
than a scene of
ROBBERY COMMENCED.
Some band of unspeakable mis-"
creants, heartless and with only
animal instincts, was on hand and
like the guerrillas who throng the
battle field the night after the coz
flict and fish from the dead the
money which they received for
their meagre pay, stealing even
bronze medals and robbing from
the children of heroes other worth
less emblems of their fathers brave
cry, SO that night did these hyenas
plumber the dead from this terrible
accident, and take even the shoes
which covered their feet. Who
these wretches are is not known.
Whether they were a band of
pickpockets who accompanied the
train. or some robber gang who
were lurking in the vicinity, can
not be aid. A horrible suspicion,
however, exists, and there are
many who give it credit, that the
accident was n deliberately planned
case of train wrecking; that
THE BRIDGE WAS SET ON FIRE
by miscreants, who hoped to SEIZE
the opportunity offered, and the
fact that the bridge was so fal
consumed at the time the train
clme along, and the added fact tina
the train was an hour and a hal
late, are pointed out as evidence
of a careful conspiracy. 1t SCENT
hardly possible that man could
be SO lost to all the ordinary feel
ing which animates the bassest Of
: the human race; out still, men who
! will rob dead men, who will stea
from the dying and plumber the
: wounded, held down by the bro
ken | cams of a car wounded
whose death seemed emminent, car
do almest anything which is base.
, and that is what these fends in
human form did. They went into
! the cars when the fire was burning
fiercely underneath, and when the
poor wretches who were pinned
there begged them "For Gods sake
to help them out,
STRIPPED THEM OF THEIR WATCH
! and jewelry and searched their
pockets for money. When the
dead bodies were laid out in thu
corn fields these hyenas turned
them over in their seach for valua
: bles. and that the plumber was
: done by an organized gang wa
E proven by the fact that this morn
: ing out in the corn field sixteen
o purses, all empty, were found il
t one heap, 1t was CHASTITY plumber
Y ing, and had the plunderers beer
= caught this afternoon they would
j surely have been Iynched.
" Frightful Waste.
Is Consumption carries off its thou
9 sands of victims every year. Yes